Find cell in another tab - google-apps-script

Question

This is a multi-part question: I'm at a loss to explain it succinctly in one clear statement. I'll try to clean it up after getting some feedback:
In Google Docs, I would like to search a different tab (in the same spreadsheet) to find a cell which contains specific data. The data may be moved around, making it impossible to use a static cell reference.
//if 'Sheet2' of my spreadsheet contains the following...
A B C D
1 - - - -
2 - foo bar 6
3 - - - -
//...then some magical function would return C2
=getCell( 'Sheet2', "bar" )
Now that we've got this cell, I want to get the values of the adjacent cells on the same row.
//this would return "foo":
=getLeft( getCell( 'Sheet2', "bar" ) )
//and this would return 6
=getRight( getCell( 'Sheet2', "bar" ) )
I was able to get a function working that satisfies the above task. However, it is PAINFULLY SLOW! I'm using the function in about 100+ places, so this makes the sheet timeout on calculation every time I change something.
Can anyone suggest how to get the same functionality, but with much better performance?
function getCell( sheetname, item, row_offset, default_string )
{
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName(sheetname);
var lastrow = sheet.getLastRow();
var lastcol = sheet.getLastColumn();
for( var c = 1; c <= lastcol; c++ )
{
for( var r = 1; r <= lastrow; r++ )
{
var range = sheet.getRange(r, c);
if( range.getValue() == item )
{
//item found! See if we can get the requested cell...
c = c + row_offset; //adjust column using given offset
if( c < 1 || c > lastcol )
return "E.offset";
else
return sheet.getRange(r,c).getValue();
}
}
}
return default_string;
}

Answer 1

Could you add a row and a column before your data range as follows:
A B C D E F G
1 "bar"
2 - - - -
3 - foo bar 6
4 - - - -
You have a cell where you have the cell content you are looking for, let's say in G1. In cell A2 you place the formula:
=COUNTIF(B2:E2,$G$1)
Which will check row A for the a match on the cell G1. Fill down the other cells in row A and cell A3 will show "1".
Use a similar formula for cell B1:
=COUNTIF(B2:B4,$G$1)
And fill across the row. Cell D1 will show a 1.
Then, use INDEX() with MATCH() to find the contents of the cells on either side:
Left:
=INDEX($B$2:$E$4,MATCH(1,$A$2:$A$4,0),MATCH(1,$B$1:$E$1,0)-1)
Right:
=INDEX($B$2:$E$4,MATCH(1,$A$2:$A$4,0),MATCH(1,$B$1:$E$1,0)+1)
No scripting required!